Bonusly's Advice feature is how your team gives and receives feedback the kind that actually helps people grow. Whether you're asking a peer for input, responding to a colleague's request, or a manager sharing observations with your team, Advice makes feedback a normal part of how your team works -- not something that only happens during annual reviews.
Why most workplace feedback doesn't work
Everyone agrees feedback matters. In practice, most of it falls short—it's too late, too vague, too rare, or too one-directional. A manager brings up something from three months ago. "You need to improve your communication" is so broad it's paralyzing.
Feedback only surfaces during annual reviews, so every comment feels like a verdict. And it almost always flows top-down, even though your peers and cross-functional partners often have the most useful perspective.
Effective feedback is specific, timely, and comes from the people who actually see your work. It's a conversation, not a performance score. And it happens often enough that no single piece of it feels like a big deal. That's what Bonusly's Advice feature is designed to make easy.
What Advice is (and why it's called that)
Advice is Bonusly's built-in feedback tool. It's where your team gives, requests, and receives feedback, privately, thoughtfully, and on their own terms.
You might be wondering about the name. Bonusly calls it "Advice" because the best feedback isn't a judgment, it's a gift. It's one person sharing their perspective to help another person get better. The word "advice" captures that spirit: something offered, not imposed.
But make no mistake, if you're looking for a way to give or receive feedback at work, Advice is the feature you want. Throughout this article, we'll use both terms interchangeably, because they describe the same thing: one person helping another grow through honest, specific input.
Here's how Advice differs from recognition:
Recognition celebrates what happened. It's public, it's positive, and it says "I saw what you did and it mattered." Recognition looks backward -- acknowledging a contribution that's already been made.
Feedback helps someone grow. It's private by default, it can be constructive or affirming, and it says "here's something I think would help you." Feedback looks forward -- offering perspective that shapes what comes next.
Both matter. Recognition without feedback means people feel appreciated but don't know how to improve. Feedback without recognition means people know what to fix but don't feel valued. Bonusly gives your team both.
Requesting Advice
One of the most powerful things you can do for your own growth is ask for Advice and make it easy for the other person to give it.
Most people don't share Advice unprompted. Not because they don't have observations, but because there's no obvious moment to share them. An Advice request creates that moment. In Bonusly, you can request advice from anyone: a peer, a skip-level manager, a cross-functional partner, no restrictions on who you can ask.
The key is being specific. Compare "Can you give me some feedback?" with "I led the sprint retro last Thursday. I'm trying to get better at facilitating. Did anything land well? Anything I should do differently?" The specific version lowers the effort of giving feedback and raises the quality of what you get back.
Requests expire after seven business days no pressure, no awkwardness. You can always resend if you'd still like their input.
Giving Advice
When someone asks for your Advice, you'll see the request in your Advice inbox. Their prompt tells you what they're looking for, and you can respond in your own time.
The best feedbackis whether you're responding to a request or offering it proactively shares a few qualities:
It's specific. "Your presentation was good" is kind but not useful. "The way you structured the customer case study -- leading with the problem, then showing the outcome -- made the ROI argument really clear" gives the person something to repeat.
It's timely. Feedback is most useful close to the moment it's about. A week later is fine. Three months later is too late -- the context has faded and the opportunity to adjust has passed.
It's actionable. Good feedback points toward something the person can do. "You tend to talk over people in meetings" is an observation. "In cross-functional meetings, pausing after your point to check if others want to add anything would give quieter voices more room" is feedback they can act on.
It's honest, not harsh. Directness and kindness aren't opposites. You can tell someone something hard without making them feel small. The goal is to help, not to score points.
If you're not sure how to phrase something, Bonusly can help -- more on that in the AI section below.
Managers: giving Advice to the team
Managers can do everything described above, request and respond to Advice just like anyone else. But they also have one additional capability: giving proactive feedback to direct reports without waiting for a request.
This matters because some of the most valuable feedback a manager can offer is the kind nobody asked for. You noticed something in a meeting. You saw a pattern across a few projects. You have context the person doesn't have about how their work lands with leadership, or how their communication style affects the team.
When you give proactive feedback as a manager, it arrives in your direct report's Advice inbox the same way a response to a request would. It's private between you and them. There's no public post, no notification to anyone else, unless they choose to share it.
A few things that make manager Advice land well:
Tie it to something observable. "You're not strategic enough" is a label. "In the last two planning cycles, your proposals focused on execution details but didn't connect back to the team's quarterly objectives -- let's talk about how to frame those differently" gives them something to work with.
Balance constructive and affirming feedback. If the only time you use Advice is to point out problems, your team will learn to dread it. Use it to reinforce what's working too. "The way you handled the scope change with the client -- acknowledging their frustration before proposing alternatives -- was exactly right" is feedback worth giving.
Make it a habit, not an event. One piece of feedback per month, delivered consistently, does more for someone's growth than a detailed annual review. Advice makes it easy to build that habit because it takes minutes, not hours.
Writing better Advice with AI
Giving Advice is hard. Even when you know what you want to say, finding the right words specific enough to be useful, direct enough to be honest, kind enough to land well -- takes effort. That's where Bonusly's AI tools help.
Rephrase. After you've drafted your feedback, you can ask Bonusly to rephrase it. The AI adjusts your text for clarity and tone -- making it more specific, more constructive, or easier to receive -- while keeping your meaning intact. Think of it as a second pair of eyes on your draft before you send it.
Templates. When you're staring at a blank page and don't know where to start, Bonusly can generate a structured draft based on prompts you fill in. You answer a few targeted questions about what you observed, and the AI turns your responses into a coherent piece of feedback. You can edit it freely before sending.
These tools lower the barrier to giving feedback. They don't replace your judgment -- you decide what to say and how to say it. The AI just helps you say it better.
Who sees Advice
Advice in Bonusly is private by default.
Situation | Receiver can see | Giver can see | Receiver’s Manager can see |
A peer gives you advice (not shared with manager) | ✔ Full thread | ✔ Full thread | ✖ No |
A peer gives you advice (you choose to share with manager) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ After advice is shared |
Your manager gives you proactive advice | ✔ | ✔ (manager is giver) | N/A |
Manager views their team’s advice page | — | — | ✔ Only advice where: • They are the giver or • The receiver chose “Share with manager” |
The "share with manager" toggle is always controlled by the receiver. You own your feedback, you decide who sees it.
FAQs
Is "Advice" the same thing as feedback? Yes. Advice is what Bonusly calls its feedback feature. If you're looking for a way to give, request, or receive feedback at work, Advice is where you'll find it. We use both terms to describe the same capability.
Can anyone request feedback, or just managers? Anyone can request feedback from anyone else in Bonusly. You don't need to be a manager, and you can request feedback from people outside your immediate team -- peers, skip-level managers, cross-functional partners, anyone.
Can I give feedback to someone without them asking for it? Managers can give proactive (unrequested) feedback to their direct reports. Peers who want to share unsolicited feedback can do so through recognition or by suggesting that the other person request feedback from them.
Who can see my feedback? By default, only you and the person you exchanged feedback with. You can optionally share feedback with your manager using the "share with manager" toggle. Nobody else -- including admins -- can see your feedback conversations.
What happens if I don't respond to a feedback request? Requests expire after seven business days. If you don't respond, the request lapses quietly. There's no penalty or notification to anyone -- the person can resend it later if they'd still like your input.
Can I edit or delete feedback after I've sent it? You can edit or delete your own messages within a feedback thread. Once feedback is published, the other person has already seen it -- but you can still update your message if you want to clarify or adjust what you wrote.
How does the AI rephrasing work? After you draft your feedback, you can ask Bonusly's AI to rephrase it for clarity and tone. The AI suggests an improved version, and you choose whether to use it, edit it, or keep your original. It's a tool to help you communicate more effectively -- not a replacement for your own voice.
How is Advice different from what happens in 1:1s? 1:1s are recurring meetings between two people -- usually a manager and a direct report -- where you discuss goals, check-ins, and whatever else matters. Advice is a standalone feedback tool that can be used between any two people, any time. The two work well together: feedback from Advice can inform 1:1 conversations, and 1:1s often surface topics worth following up on through Advice.
Can I give feedback through Slack or Microsoft Teams? Feedback requests and notifications appear in Bonusly's web and mobile apps. While recognition flows through Slack and Teams channels, Advice conversations stay in the Bonusly app to preserve privacy.
What plan do I need to use Advice? Advice is available on all Bonusly plans.
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help!
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